An Upbeat View: Nonlawyer Ownership of Law Firms
October 29, 2007
This article examines the two main objections to outside ownership of law firms. The first is that it would permit nonlawyers to interfere with lawyers' exercise of professional judgment. The second is that the firm's duty to its shareholders would lead it to focus blindly on maximizing profits.
The Uncertain Tax Status of Series LLCs
October 29, 2007
The Internal Revenue Service has not weighed in on the proper tax classification of series LLCs. Accordingly, lawyers recommending this new form of entity to clients or considering a series LLC for an ancillary business of the law firm or other purpose should proceed with caution.
Cyberinsurance for Data Security Risks
October 29, 2007
The harms that can result from computer security breaches are largely uncovered by the types of insurance policies most law firms maintain. Combined with the inadequate security most law firms provide for client data, the resultant risk exposure arguably violates legal professional ethics. A firm's failure to adequately protect computer-based master files, time-and-billing records, court filings, wills, powers of attorney, corporate records, and other client-related materials is a violation of bar association requirements to preserve client files and more generally a failure in the firm's overall duty to act competently in the best interests of its clients.
Detailed Billing
September 28, 2007
Today's bills are as thick as case files, and at least as detailed. Concerned over what lawyers are doing with their time and who's working on a matter ' whether to track diversity or to keep expensive but inexperienced first-year associates off the case ' clients demand exhaustive accounting from their outside counsel.
Cyberinsurance for Data Security Risks
September 28, 2007
The harms that can result from computer security breaches are largely uncovered by the types of insurance policies most law firms maintain. Combined with the inadequate security most law firms provide for client data, the resultant risk exposure arguably violates legal professional ethics. A firm's failure to adequately protect computer-based master files, time-and-billing records, court filings, wills, powers of attorney, corporate records, and other client-related materials is a violation of bar association requirements to preserve client files and more generally a failure in the firm's overall duty to act competently in the best interests of its clients.
Normalizing Mix Variables in Financial Data
September 28, 2007
Most law firm managers understand the importance that business analysis plays in steering a firm toward success. However, as with so many things in life, a little bit of analysis can be a dangerous thing. Management reporting processes typically collect, organize, and ultimately combine data sets from different practice areas, offices, industries, etc. Superficial reports compare aggregate characteristics (<i>e.g.</i>, top-line results) without identifying the varying components contained within the data sets and normalizing for these variables. This can lead those who examine such reports to draw misleading or even totally wrong conclusions.
How Widespread Is Unethical Billing?
September 28, 2007
Aside from a few sensational disbarments and criminal prosecutions for overbilling, most evidence of billing irregularities is anecdotal. In order to provide a more precise assessment of the scope of the abuse of time-based billing by attorneys, I conducted nationwide surveys of outside counsel in 1991, 1995, and 2007. The large majority of respondents to all three surveys ' 82% in the most recent survey ' indicated that time-based billing was their dominant method of billing.
When Women Lateral
September 28, 2007
In the summer of 2006, Major, Lindsey & Africa, the international legal search/recruiting firm where I am a partner, sent a survey to 5622 lateral partners in 647 law firms to assess their overall satisfaction and to identify the key factors affecting satisfaction; the firm received more than 1000 responses. Women comprised approximately 17% of the original pool of targeted candidates and 15% of the respondents who identified themselves by gender. This percentage is low primarily due to the lack of women partners.
